Genealogy Collage

When I look at photos, I feel like I've gone back in time, to a place where you would stay stiff for five minutes before the flash bulb went off, to a place where everything was captured in black and white, to a place where you saved up months of your salary to be photographed.

I felt like I wasn't doing enough with the pictures that reside on my desktop, so I printed out my photo collection and created...

                      The genealogical collage!

       These photographs mean a lot to me, every one has a story, an interesting story.

One of my favorite pictures is the one of the elderly woman in the bottom right hand corner, my great grandmother Anna, it was taken by my father, and is one of two photos I am lucky enough to have of her.

The man in the sketch at the top, was David Stone Libbey, my 4th great grandfather, a famous Maine woodsman and the subject of "David Libbey: Penobscot Woodsman and River-Driver", by Fannie Hardy Eckstorm.  He is the reason I got in to genealogy, after seeing his portrait at my Great-Aunt's house, I was fascinated by him, and wanted to know more! I found out that he was killed in a hunting accident, which is very sad.

The picture wedged in between the two babies is of my great grandparents, their daughter and her family, this one means a lot to me, because it is the only picture I have of them, they were both Irish immigrants, who moved to Massachusetts in the early 1900's and had four children.

The woman in between the baby and David Libbey is my 2nd great grandmother, Muriel.  She played piano for the silent movies! She had two children with my 2nd great grandfather George (under the family portrait, next to the man with the checkerboard).  George left Muriel and their two young daughters, and went to Canada where he stayed for the rest of his life.  Muriel stayed with her daughters and her "dying" mother, who actually ended up living longer than expected, which precluded a marital reunion!

Seeing all of my ancestors together and looking at their faces makes me wonder if my face will someday adorn the houses of children I'll never meet.